Agnes was so full of pride for Riley that it felt like her chest would burst. Her Lady was now a second rank noble...
Agnes almost couldn't believe it, however as she thought it over, if it had something to do with Lady Riley, anything was possible. Agnes had grown so fond of her over the past season that she looked on Lady Riley as if she were her own child. Agnes had always wanted children but a life in service didn't make time for your personal life. But now it felt as if she had her own child, she knew that she couldn't be so presumptuous as to claim Lady Riley as her child, but she felt deep in her heart that pride she felt for Lady Riley was the pride a mother felt for their child.
"The house..." Agnes murmured.
"Excuse me?" Asked Riley hearing her.
"Well your a second rank noble now aren't you?" Agnes Asked with flustered red cheeks.
"Well yeah, I guess." Riley smiled.
"Then as per custom, renovations must be made to the house." Agnes stated as if it were obvious. "I'll go and arrange with the builders to come by today and to some renovations!" Agnes swiftly got up from the couch and exited the room. Although Agnes did want some renovations to happen, she really just used it as an excuse to get out of the room because she didn't want the others to see her cry, with happiness.
Bard passed her on the staircase and asked her why she was in such a hurry, she quickly told him about Lady Riley's promotion and then hurried down to the maids quarters where she could have a little cry.
Bard on the other hand didn't feel the need to cover up his emotions, the sweet old man simply took out his handkerchief and wept proudly on the stair case.
"What's the matter Mr Bard?" Asked Auberon as him and Rudyard were moving some furniture through the entrance hall.
"Oh dear men, nothing is the matter with me, in fact nothing could be better!" He said as he dabbed his tissue against his sunken cheeks. "Listen to this fine piece of news. Our lady has been promoted to a noble of second rank." He declared, with sparkles in his eyes.
"What great news!" Exclaimed Auberon. "But I can't say it was unexpected... Lady Riley deserved to be announced a second rank noble quite a while ago. Don't you think so Rudyard?"
Rudyard nodded his head but said nothing. He knew that although it was a great honor to be declared a second rank noble, it was really one of the ways for the Royal family to control you more. If you are a second rank noble you have to declare all projects and businesses you own to the Royal family, also you have to have permission from them to leave the Kingdom. Although this promotion might raise Riley's status, it was also the Royal family declaring her a valuable asset to the kingdom and tightening the reins on her.
"Did I hear you correctly?!" Called out the voice of Augustus with young Ilsa by his side. "Our Lady has become a second rank noble..." he looked up at Bard awaiting his response.
Bard nodded down at him, still wiping the tear from his face.
"A feast I say! A feast!" Augustus pumped his fist into the air. "Come Ilsa make haste we must prepare a congratulatory feast!" With that the two of them dashed back into the kitchen and began cooking up. storm.
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Prince Geoffrey and ten other individuals sat beside his father at the large round table. They were part of the governing body, the advisors to the king, a group that was tasked in assisting the king in governing the kingdom, although all the final decisions were left to the King.
The group had no name, but as a collective they were the most powerful governing force in Girannon.
First rank noble Lord Slevonth De Ilsteinweiss was an plump and friendly looking man with his constant smiling face and rosy cheeks, however, the few people who really knew the Head of the Church of magic knew that he was a wolf in sheep's clothing. A strict and ruthless dictator of the church. on a good note he actually was supremely devoted to magic and the church.
"It was definitely a clever move to promote her to Second rank," began Lord Slevonth. "Now she is permanently tied to this kingdom and is duty bound to serve it for life." He nodded his head satisfied.
"I agree." Lord Von Esterheim hardly ever spoke and his voice felt foreign even among this group. "What of her latest exports?"
"Recently I personally took part in a rescue mission to save Lord Gavriel and Lord Baratheon from a pack of demonized wolves.." came the Prince's cool tone. "During the trip Lord Baratheon was fatally wounded by one of the wolves and died right there on the grass..."
"How can that be?" Interjected Lord Smithson. "I saw him with his son yesterday and there wasn't a scratch on him." The stern voice of the Head of Girannon's army livened up the room.
"That was Lady Delton's doing..." Explained Prince Geoffrey. "She used some type of combined Healing magic and lightning magic to bring the Lord back to life."
"Impossible!" Someone muttered.
"How can that be?"
"It is known fact that no magic can bring someone back from the dead." Protested Lord Smithson.
Lord Umphrey sat silently in his chair, even though he knew how powerful Riley was, this claim was testing his imagination.
"Do you doubt my eyes...?" the prince asked, restoring the room to order. "The power of my eyes is absolute. With these eyes I can't tell apart the dead from the living and so I can tell you with absolute certainty that Lord Baratheon died."
Nobody could argue with the prince because they all knew and revered the power of the prince's golden eyes.
"Interesting..." murmured Lord Slevonth. He was quite eager to meet Lady Delton tomorrow when she would come, as per the invitation he sent her, to the church. He planned to get her as involved in the church as possible, she was a valuable asset that was sure to reap brilliant profits for him in the future.
"We should ask Lady Delton to come and teach magical classes at the Royal Mage society, perhaps then we can better understand her powers." Suggested Lord Umphrey.
"Yes. That is a good idea." The King spoke. "Out of everyone here, the Marcellus's have the strongest bond with Lady Riley. You must be the one to convince her to do so." The King's order was law. Lord Umphrey nodded his head.
"In the meantime I have started a group of spies and high ranking mages to investigate Lady Riley's magic and her circumstances. Although I do not believe she is a threat to Girannon, we cannot definitively say that her allegiance does not belong to another kingdom. So I have tasked them with deciphering her magic in the hopes of finding the origins of her spells and hence uncover her true identity." The prince announced taking a drink from his glass of wine.
"Good work my son." Praised the King.
"On a different note, I have some disturbing news to announce." The prince's voice was solemn. "The rise in demonized creatures is going beyond the normal level. There are usually only three sighting of such creatures per year and yet every time a platoon ventures into the forest they report seeing demonized bears and wolves. Also my younger brother's party was attacked by a demonized wolf and recently and entire pack of them attacked Lord Gavriel and Lord Baratheon which unfortunately resulted in the deaths of three guards and the disappearance of Sir Fitz, a knight from the Knights Order. I believe that something strange is going on." The room agreed. What was happening wasn't at all natural...
"What do think the cause of it is then?" Asked Lord Von Esterheim.
"I am not sure, but I sense that somebody is tampering with the balance. For now I have sent scouters out into the forest to see what they can uncover, when they bring back news I will inform you."
The king sat in his throne stiffly. A troubling memory pushed to the front of his mind from his days in the war. The constant streams of blood bursting out in front of him, the cries of pained and dying men played out around him, the deranged eyes of a subhuman creature dying and being reborn in front of him, the sound of his heart amplifying his terror.
It couldn't be...
"My King?" Geoffrey's voice filtered through his memory and broke him out of his stupor.
"It's nothing." He whispered back. "This meeting is adjourned." The king announced and then left the room.
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Henrietta knew the café would be busy, but she hadn't expected it to be this busy...
Almost the entire day she had been running around taking orders, boxing cakes, writing up receipts, giving customers change, rearranging the displays. It was tiring but it felt good to be working again, especially in such a nice establishment. However there was a downside to working at Sophie's cafe, she was literally dying to try some of the desserts but she knew she couldn't because they were so out of her price range.
The shops was constantly filled with divine smells that made her stomach grumble, sadly she could only afford the goods labeled as 'hard candies'. The things called 'Lollipops' and 'toffee's' were quite cheep, she could buy four for the one bronze. She thought that it might be a nice surprise for Soren when she went to go an collect him.
Working in the shop was also teaching her more about the wealthier side of Gismead. She hadn't realized that the gap between people like her and the wealthy merchants was so huge. The fact that they could just walk into the shop and buy whatever they liked was so shocking to Henrietta. Also when they sat down to talk, they talked about how much money they had spent on such, or the way they displayed their gemstone jewelry so freely. It was all so eye opening about the inequality that ran through Gismead. What was even more unsettling to realize was that these people were not even the most wealthy people in Gismead, they were just merchants or people with large family inheritances or people with good jobs, the real wealth lies with the nobles like Lady Delton. Henrietta could only imagine the kind of wealth Lady Delton possessed. She probably had a trunk filled with gold in her estate or something ridiculous like that.
As the working day drew to a close and Henrietta, Briony and Matilda waved goodbye to their last customer, Henrietta was excited to go and fetch Soren from the Home. She was used to spending the entire day with him, so she was anxious to see if he was alright.
On her way to the Home, Henrietta quickly stopped by a quaint clothing shop and purchased some shirts and trousers for Soren as well as a new pair of black buckled boots and some nice thick grey socks. Henrietta walked home with a smile on her face as the warm evening sun embraced her skin. This was probably the best day of her life because she finally felt like she could be a good mother, and it was all thanks to Lady Delton.
"Agnes, I forgot to ask but how did the recruiting go? Did you find anybody who wanted to go to the safe house?" Riley asked eagerly as the topic suddenly sprung to her mind, she was currently in the library reading some interesting spells from the tenebris intellexerent.
"I found one young woman by the name, Henrietta Coldswell. I delivered her and her son to the House and I believe that she started working at the café today." Replied Agnes as she put down a cup of tea and slice of Gocan cake beside Riley.
"Thank you Agnes." Riley smiled gratefully for the cake and for Agnes going to recruit a woman. "But only one woman?" She asked sounding a bit disappointed.
"My apologies Milady, I must admit that I rushed to get out of that part of Gismead..." Agnes admitted with a sour look on her face even thinking about how disgusting the Azmeth district was.
"Oh really, why?" Riley asked.
"Oh Milady that place is like a stain on the kingdom and on my memories, not to mention the unbearable stench of the place..." Agnes supported her stomach as if she was going to be sick. "Those poor people, it's not even their fault, it's those useless water pipes that were installed..."
"What's wrong with the water pipes?" Riley asked, furrowing her brow and turning around to look at Agnes.
"Well Milady, a season before you came there were large protests from the poorer districts demanding better services from the Royal family. The protests became too large for the Kingdom to ignore, so the King ordered one of the water system guilds, the guilds that use water magic in the pipes to deal with sewage, they were giving the task of fitting the whole of Azmeth with water pipes but because they weren't being payed they took a few shortcuts. Hence, the pipes don't really work and the sewage from the pipes always leak onto the streets..."
"What?!" Riley was so angry for those poor people. "Why hasn't the Royal family done anything about this?" She asked frustrated.
"Well Milady, very few of the noble folk or the people from the palace set foot in the poorer regions like Azmeth so they probably don't know about the pipes, also, even if they did know about the pipes, since the Royals and nobles reap no profits from fixing them, they won't." Agnes's tone was grim, the face and voice of a woman who was now indifferent to the injustices of this Kingdom.
"What about the people, couldn't they do another protest and get the pipes fixed..."
"They were tired of fighting for what they wanted, especially when the benefits weren't worth the amount of energy and time they put into protesting." Suddenly Agnes's expression became lighter.
"There was actually a point when there was expected to be a massive, even violent protest. The districts surrounding Azmeth and Azmeth people declared they would march from down there, right up to the noble sect and to the palace and stay there until the King spoke to them."
"And then what happened?" Riley was wide-eyes listening to Agnes retelling.
"Shortly before the set date, you asked Prince Geoffrey to employ the poorer people of Gismead for the factories he was opening to make your potion, and so a lot of the protesters became employed and didn't feel the need to protest anymore, so the march was canceled and many of the nobles were relieved." Agnes concluded.
"Wait, so then their pipes just remained in that state?" Riley asked a deep unsettled feeling in her was forming.
"Afraid so, Milady..." Agnes said as she curtseyed and then left the room.
Riley closed the tenebris intellexerent and got up from her desk and walked over to the stand where she kept the book and placed it gently on the carved wood. Her mind was focusing on the water pipes down in Azmeth, thinking about what she could do to make the situation better.
Agnes had told her that the pipes were faulty because of the poor quality spells they used to maintain it. So all she had to do was go down there and recast the spells in the pipes.
The plan was solidifying in Riley's mind. After dinner, when everybody had gone to bed she would put on a dark robe and sneak down to Azmeth, find a pipe and let her magic flow through it.
Riley winded down the library, her eyes scanning the contents of the shelves, searching for a particular kind of book. She walked further and further into her massive library, her fingers tracing over the spines of the books and also the wool of the backs of the empty shelves as her library wasn't filled with books yet. She came to a stop when she saw a particularly think spines book covered in and deep chestnut leather with an emblem of a golden dragon on it. She slid the heavy book out of its place and held it open in her arms.
'The Gismead book of maps' it read.
Riley turned over the pages and was happy to see detailed maps of each district. The noble sect, the harbor side, the properties that were outside of Gismead but still belonged to Gismead. Everything she needed to make her way through Azmeth was here.
"Milady, dinner is served." Came Edna's calm voice.
"Coming." Riley called back.
Riley sat down to feast and enjoy the array of stunning dishes that Augustus and Ilsa has prepared.
Soon after it was time for bed, and she went threw the usual motions of having a bath and getting into her night gown. After Agnes had turned of the lights, Riley waited patiently for all the light in the house to be turned off and the bustling from downstairs to cease, before she slowly got out of her covers.
Riley soundlessly put some boots on and cloaked herself in a long black hooded cloak, then made her way to her balcony...